8 months after demonetisation, Paytm refuses to let momentum down

Ever since demonetisation put Paytm on the map, the digital payment company has kept itself on the radar through new feature launches which are proving hard to resist for its users.Chhavi Tyagi | ET Online | August 08, 2017, 07:20 IST

Soon after receiving the biggest funding put in by any individual investor in the Indian ecosystem, Paytm announced its plans to invest $1.6 billion (Rs 10,000 crore) over the next three to five years in expanding its user base to half a billion Indians.

On May 18 2017, Japanese Internet and telecom major Softbank Group Corp invested $1.4 billion in One97 Communications, Paytm’s parent. This money, Paytm informed in a statement, will be used to increase its user base by launching a number of new financial products involving wealth management, deposits, and money lending.

In months post this announcement, Paytm has moved fast and launched many features to not only keep its enviable base of 225 million users continuously engaged, but also get new users on the platform.

New features for aggressive growthFollowing its declared objective, Paytm announced the launch of its first wealth management product at the end of the April this year – Paytm Gold. The product allows users to buy, store, and sell gold through Paytm. To facilitate maximum transactions, the feature allows users to buy gold on its platform for as low as Re 1 and the result have already started showing. Economic Times reported how Paytm Gold has allowed the digital payments company to spread its footprints in small towns where digital currency has not found as many takers as hoped.

The company is currently in talks with bringing major jewellers on boards to facilitate the availability of digital gold to its customers in the form of minted coins or jewellery.

“We have people from over 8,000 pincodes buying gold from us. There are users who are buying gold regularly on the platform for as low as Re 1 to Rs 11, almost daily or on a weekly basis. We are very excited about the fact that people have started using this as an accumulation platform to build up their gold balance,” says Paytm, senior vice-president, Krishna Hegde.

The product is only a little over a month old currently and Paytm says it’s current focus is to educate uses on the product but as ET reported, it has already generated enough interest, especially from places like Kanchipuram, Burdwan, and Dhanbad, which are recording increased transactions in just a month of Paytm Gold.

Another big bet of Paytm is the Payments Bank which the company launched a day before it received its mega funding. The entire user base of its digital payments platform has been transferred to its new payments bank format and the company is already targeting doubling that user base by 2020. Paytm’s founder and CEO, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, has announced his intention to make Paytm Payments Bank bigger than any traditional banks operating in India.

Apart from launching new products and features, Sharma is also targeting inorganic route by acquiring related businesses. The company recently announced the acquisition of online ticketing and events company Insider.in for a little over Rs 35 crore. Through this acquisition, Paytm aims to increase its footprint in the organised events industry. It’s own online movie ticketing service currently spans 3,500 screens across 550 cities.

In a bid to provide more for its users, Paytm announced its joint venture with online lottery company AGTech Media to set up a gaming company in India. According to a statement, Paytm will hold 55% in the new joint venture while AGTech group will own 45%.

Keeping up its pace of new projects, Paytm is expected to launch a chat facility on its mobile app by the end of this month. With Paytm’s user base of 225 million compared to 200 million of WhatsApp users, the announcement has pegged the two biggest digital companies in direct competition – much before WhatsApp’s expected entry into digital payments business.

Ever since demonetisation put Paytm on the map, the digital payment company has kept itself on the radar through new launches, which its users are finding too good to resist.